Polio-Like Illness — Why It’s Only Affecting California Children

No reports of the potential new polio virus have been reported in children outside of California. Here’s why doctor’s believe that the illness is only striking children on the West Coast, and where it might be coming from.

An illness similar to polio has been found in at least five different children in California. At least twenty more suffer from similar symptoms, but are unconfirmed to be carrying the same virus. Doctor’s have a theory about where it is coming from, and why it seems to be isolated to California. Get more details right here.

Why Is The Polio-Like Illness Only Affecting California

The illness that doctors are comparing to polio has made plenty of headlines this week. A new theory revealed by Dr. Emmanuelle Waubant, the co-author of the case report, tells us why this potential new virus strain seems to be isolated to California — for now.

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“We think one reason why these cases may have occurred in California is that we are at the western-most part of the United States, so we may have had a higher circulation of the virus that was originally identified in Asia,” Dr. Waubant explained in an interview. In the last decade alone, multiple reports of children suffering from the same polio-like illness were reported in Australia and Asia.

“We would like to stress that this syndrome appears to be very, very rare,” said Dr. Keith Van Haren, a pediatric neurologist working on the virus, in a prepared statement during a press conference on Monday, Feb. 23 in Palo Alto, California.